The United Teachers of Los Angeles, which represents most teachers at LA Unified, has called for a boycott of the Los Angeles Times. The paper obtained records on 6,000 teachers and used student scores on standardized tests to evaluate teacher performance. The Union calls it an "attack on the profession." On our rebroadcast of To the Point, the 14th Amendment, citizenship and the children of illegal immigrants, and General Petraeus' public relations campaign on Afghanistan.

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The United Teachers of Los Angeles, which represents most teachers at LA Unified, has called for a boycott of the Los Angeles Times. The paper obtained records on 6,000 teachers and used student scores on standardized tests to evaluate teacher performance. It's already published the names of some who did well and some who did not, and promises to publish the rest in the future. The Union calls it an "attack on the profession." On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, the 14th Amendment, citizenship and the children of illegal immigrants, and General David Petraeus and American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Los Angeles Times has created a furor at the LA Unified School District with a lengthy story called "Grading the Teachers: Who's Teaching LA's Kids?" With information provided by the district after a California Public Records Act request, some 6,000 3rd through 5th grade teachers were evaluated using what's called a "value added" analysis. We hear from a Times reporter, the leader of the teachers' union and the Deputy Superintendent of Schools.

South Carolina’s Republican Senator Lindsey Graham created a furor last month by saying that people come to this country “to have babies.” He said, “it’s called drop and leave,” suggesting that families go home after their newborns have become citizens of the United States under the 14th Amendment. Republicans John McCain and Mitch McConnell have joined Graham’s call for hearings on amending the amendment. Is the current dispute about race? Will it play a role in the November elections?

Same-sex marriage in California has been put on hold once again, this time by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. District judge Vaughn Walker, the one who found California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, ordered marriages to begin day after tomorrow. Today the Ninth Circuit, without explanation, said arguments about a possible appeal will begin the week of December 6. Karen Ocamb, editor of Frontiers in LA, blogs at LGBT POV.